08/11/2004 | W0ZQ/R The ARRL's August UHF contest has always been one of my favorites. Roving to hilltops to play on the highbands is just simply plain old fun, and, you can leave those big 6m & 2m antennas at home.

This year, in parallel with the ARRL's August UHF contest, the Northern Lights Radio Society (NLRS) locally sponsored "Rovermania". Rovermania was a coordinated effort to share rover ideas and information, equipement, antennas, and to coordinate rover plans to maximize overall activity levels, and oh ya, to have some fun. No, this wasnt planned grid circling and no this wasnt captive roving .... we simply promoted activity through roving and by working who you can, where you can, when you can.

The ZQ rovermobile was fairly basic as far as rovers go. I called it "roverlite". The 222 through 3456 antennas were mounted on a small mast that was inside a 3' Radio Shack tripod (thanks to K0PG/N9ILT/R's for the idea). The tripod gets bolted to a Yakama roof rack. All the antennas had 6' booms or less and the total height was under 11'. The antenna system went down the road at 70mph with no signs of distress or very much sound. 5760 was 200mW to a 13dB horn while 10gigs was 6 watts and a 22" offset dish. Both of these got set up when I stopped.

All power was provided via the cars 13.8vdc power system (10gigs had its own battery). I had two power cables coming from the car battery through the firewall (via one of those rubber gromet pop-outs in the firewall) with fuses on all leads. One cable powered 222/432 while the second one powered 902 and up. That way I could always send on 222 OR 432 AND any one of the microwave bands. Power distribution was via Powerpole connectors.

I started the contest near Algona(Iowa)at the EN23/33/22/32 grid corner. From there I drove straight west to EN12, then north through EN13, 14, 15, then back east to the EN25/35/24/34 grid corner. 24 hrs, about 700 miles, and 374 QSO's.

Highlights of the contest include:
1) Working 120 miles paths on 5760 with 200mW and a 13dB horn.
2) Working the "big guns" on 10gigs from everywhere. The longest paths were about 240 miles and most paths were 50 to 200 miles.
3) Hearing the activity that Rovermania generated and enjoying the ARRL UHF contest as it is.
4) Handing out new grids on the high bands.
5) Getting to EN15 at 4:00am Sunday morning to find the Twin Cites gang waiting on me.
6) 222 rocks ! What a great band. 4 element and 120 watts.

Lowlights include:
1) Not being able to work everyone. I know there were contacts that I missed being a solo rover and sticking to a time schedule.
2) Thinking that this may be the last August UHF contest like this.

The NLRS did a great job of generating activity through Rovermania which was run in parallel with the ARRL UHF contest. Perhaps other local clubs can increase their level of activity through similar activities. By sponsoring contests like the August UHF contest the ARRL has provided us with an opportunity to get out there and have fun, but its up to us at the local level to grab that opportunity and to run with it.

See you in the 10gigs contest coming up soon.

73, Jon -- W0ZQ